A Meeting of Minds
by Colleen
Summary: Kenshin decides to introduce Battousai to Kaoru. This is a sequel of sorts to 'Of Two Minds' but you don't need to have read it to read this.
1. Default Chapter

Authors note: I started writing this as a sequel to 'Of Two Minds' back on December 21, 2001. I got stuck sometime in March (yup, I write slowly) and it's been there ever since. I thought I would post it in parts and maybe that would get me writing on it again. So, here's the first part.

Second Authors note: I have read a lot of stories with this set up before. If there are any similarities to other stories like it they are unintentional. This just seemed like the next thing that had to happen after 'Of Two Minds'. I apologize in advance if I step on anyone's toes.

Summary: Kenshin wants to introduce Battousai to Kaoru.

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I don't own them. If I did they would have gotten to be great grandparents rather than what happened in the last OVA. Please don't sue. 

A Meeting of Minds 

By Colleen 

Part One

Kaoru could feel the storm coming. Which, she thought, was strange since the clear blue sky with nary a hint of cloud was obviously not going to stir up anything soon. Still, her body felt the tension that she always associated with really bad weather and it was making her jumpy. 

And Kenshin wasn't helping.

For the last few weeks he had seemed poised to take action. What that action was Kaoru couldn't tell but the suspicion that her redheaded boarder might decide to leave, once again taking up the life of a wanderer, gnawed at her mind.

She wasn't sure what she would do if that were the case.

He had already left once. If she hadn't followed after him to Kyoto she was sure that he would never have come back. If he left again......

If he left again she would drop kick him into the river and after she dragged his sorry ass out of the water she would chain him up in the dojo until he came to his senses. 

Kaoru smiled at the image. The anger it vented made her feel better for a few moments before the tension returned threefold.

Something is coming, she thought. I don't know what or when but it will be soon and it will be bad.

Very bad.

************

"Kaoru dono the bath is ready."

Kaoru gave a small squeal and jumped about three feet towards heaven when the subject of her reflections came up behind her. Hands shaking slightly she turned to look into a pair of concerned violet eyes. "A-arigatou Kenshin." She said as she moved past him towards the bathhouse. She could feel his worried gaze on her all the way there, in fact she thought she could feel it even after she closed door. Blushing slightly at the thought she started to prepare for her bath, all the while throwing nervous glances towards the bathhouse's entrance.

************

Kenshin, still standing where Kaoru had left him, was trying to figure out why she had seemed so nervous when he came up behind her. True he did walk very softly so he may have just startled her. He hoped that was all it was since he really didn't want to scare her, especially now.

Recently he had had a very surprising visit with himself. While he had always known that his nature was somewhat divided he had still been shocked when his other self, the one even he tended to think of as Battousai, had confronted him during a dream. The two of them had come to terms, both finding common ground in their regard for a certain dark haired, blue eyed kendo teacher.

Kenshin's face took on a happy, almost goofy look for a moment when he thought of her. He quickly shook it off. He knew he could never let Kaoru know of his love for her. She deserved so much more than a former assassin who would never be free of the blood he'd shed. He couldn't stain her that way.

Kenshin sighed. Sometimes he felt that it really would be better if he left her. He knew his presence in her home placed her and his friends in constant danger. Common sense said they would be safer if he left. Of course, if he had listened to common sense he would never have stayed with Kaoru in the first place. 

Actually he suspected that leaving would no longer keep her safe. Even if he didn't stay old enemies would still try to use her and his friends against him. His connection to them was too well known.

So he would stay and protect her. Or perhaps, he thought, that should be WE will protect her. 

Which brought him back to the problem that had been plaguing him for the last few weeks. If he could not tell Kaoru of his love for her then the least he could do was give her some peace of mind by letting her know both sides of him. He knew that every time Battousai had taken over to fight for him she had been terrified that the Kenshin she knew would be lost forever. 

To be truthful he had feared the same thing during his fights against Jinei and Saitou. The duel with Saitou had actually been the worst as it had been very difficult to take control again. Even then the balance between his two natures had shifted towards the hitokiri. For awhile it became far too easy to solve a conflict with a sword rather than seek a peaceful solution. 

Kenshin now knew that control wasn't an issue. While Battousai would always fight to protect his new found family he seemed to realize that his other personality, the rurouni, was the one that could make them happy. The hitokiri would no longer contest his gentler side's return. 

So he'd thought to bring Kaoru and Battousai together. Then she could know that his other personas regard for her was just as strong as the rurouni's was. He wanted her to know that regardless of who he was at any given time he would always protect her. That no matter what happened he would always come back to her. That in this thing at least she no longer needed to fear for him.

To that end he had spent the time since he had spoken with Battousai trying to think of some way to bring his other self and Kaoru together. He'd hoped to work out a calm and peaceful situation where they could at least speak to each other. The only problem with that was that the hitokiri usually only showed up when the rurouni was either in dire straights or angered beyond all reason. True, Kenshin could probably force the issue if he had to but he suspected that doing so would make the meeting a disaster. Mixed with the fact that Battousai wouldn't like being pushed Kenshin knew his other self was reluctant to face Kaoru. The hitokiri cared for her too much to want to do anything to scare or hurt her and he feared that his presence would do both. 

Kenshin shook his head and headed off to make dinner. To think that he would actually want Battousai to come out. It was almost funny. That he would work towards something he had spent the last ten years working against seemed like pure insanity. He had to wonder just how hard his other self was laughing about the whole thing.

************

Battousai watched the world from behind the rurouni's eyes as always. Actually he was never as far away from the surface of Kenshin's mind as the swordsman liked to believe. Although he had to admit that in the early days of the affair with Shishio he had been a lot closer. Two things had backed him off. The first being Kaoru. He had been angry when she followed them to Kyoto. Angry but not really surprised and as he told her somewhat relieved. So he'd made sure to hid a little deeper and thereby avoid spilling any of the anger out onto her. The second thing had been the succession technique. To use it you had to have a strong will to live and while it turned out that the rurouni had that will Battousai knew as hitokiri he was far too willing to throw his life away. That will to live as well as the extra power Kenshin received through the two new techniques he'd learned from Hiko had given him the fighting edge he needed without calling on the manslayer's abilities. For a brief while Battousai thought he might never get the chance to resurface again. 

The current situation, he had to admit, was almost funny. He had fought to be free so many times in the past but except during a few extreme crises had been effectively caged. Now he was actually being invited to take control for a while and he was doing everything in his power to avoid it. As hitokiri he had seen a lot of faces contort into fear at his mere presence. He had, in fact, put his ability to strike terror into the hearts of the men he had fought to good use. However, the same look on Kaoru's face seemed to slip a blade between his ribs and twist it. 

Still he knew he couldn't avoid the rurouni's plans forever. The law that says anything that can go wrong will go wrong was firmly entrenched in his life and he knew that if he waited too much longer something would force the issue. It would probably make things ten times worse than if he just did it the way that his other self wanted. 

Damn, but the rurouni must be laughing himself silly over this. 

************

Kaoru finished getting dressed after her bath and headed to the kitchen to help Kenshin with dinner. Luckily for the dinner everything was just about ready so Kaoru moved to set the table instead.

Kenshin looked up from the pot he was giving a last stir to. "It will just be the two of us Kaoru dono." 

"Oh" she said looking at the four place settings she held in her hands. It was rare for the two of them to eat alone. While it wasn't unusual for Yahiko her student/younger brother she never had and still wasn't sure she really wanted to miss a meal his absence was usually filled either by a freeloading Sagara Sanosuke or Dr. Genzai and his granddaughters.

Actually, she thought, this is good. Dinner together was the perfect opportunity to find out what had been bothering Kenshin for the last few weeks. She went off to set the table, plans for the upcoming interrogation whirling about in her mind. 

************

As Kenshin dished the food out into its different serving bowls he was thinking how tonight would have been a good time to formally introduce Battousai to Kaoru. With just the two of them here they could have had dinner together and with luck perhaps had time to talk awhile after. He'd left the door open for his other self but the invitation had yet to be accepted. 

Kenshin looked up as Kaoru came back into the kitchen from setting the table. The red haired samurai was suddenly struck with the uncomfortable feeling that the young woman was plotting something. He felt sweat spring to life on his face. Kaoru plotting was a dangerous thing indeed. Personally he thought that it was even more frightening then most of the old enemies he still found himself coming up against. 

************

Kaoru came back into the kitchen to help Kenshin carry some of the serving bowls that the rurouni was still fussing with. When he looked up at her as she entered her worries about him jumped like a frightened heartbeat. He was planning something. Her mind quickly moved to the conclusion that he was going to use this dinner with just the two of them to tell her that he was leaving.

No, she thought, I won't let him. She didn't care what she had to do she would not let him leave again. Heart hammering in her ears she picked up the bowls and took them to the table, buying herself some time to figure out what to do.

************

Battousai watched the signals between the rurouni and Kaoru like a spectator at a train wreck. He felt an immense panic run through his body, although he suspected that the emotion mostly belonged to his other self. Still, Kaoru plotting was just about one of the most terrifying things he could think of, short of her getting hurt. He didn't know what she was planning but he felt sure it was trouble. Warily he eyed the door between his two personalities. It was still open, the invitation still extended. Not sure if he was about to make things even worse he stepped tentatively through the door, ready and willing to retreat should the rurouni decide to change his mind and shut him out. 

************

The rurouni was startled to feel Battousai accept the invitation he had extended to him. He considered stopping the hitokiri from taking control but the thought was momentary and not really a consideration. He had been working for this for weeks and despite the current situation and a few misgivings he wasn't about to change his mind now. 

With Battousai's coming Kenshin felt something shift, and it was more than just his eye colour. The way he looked at the world changed, becoming terribly practical. It was a place where things were viewed in terms of black and white, safe and dangerous, protect and kill. A place where if you had to move from A to B then you did, destroying anything that got in your way. This practicality mixed with the hitokiri's carefully banked anger gave him the coldness of a predator and an ability to look at just about everything with an impartial eye. 

Kaoru, however, was not one of the things he could look at that way. 

He really had tried to ignore her at first, much the way he had attempted to ignore Tomoe when they first met. When that didn't work he denied his interest in her, claiming that the fascination with her was all the rurouni's. 

It didn't work. 

Eventually he had to admit to that he was lying to himself. He loved her and didn't want to. He was afraid that, like Tomoe, caring for her would get her killed. In fact it very nearly had a number of times. Still he had to agree with the rurouni's belief that Kaoru was a strong woman. He had rather guiltily suspected that Tomoe wouldn't have survived half the things that she had. The girl was strong yet innocent and that innocence drew the rurouni just as her fighting spirit drew Battousai. All of him wanted her. 

************

Kaoru came back into the kitchen to get the rice. "I guess that's everything. Shall we eat?" She asked. 

Kenshin simply stood there, his eyes hidden by the unruly thatch of hair that made up his bangs.

"Kenshin?" She asked, panic nearly choking his name off in her throat. Noooo, she thought, no no no no no. He won't even give me a chance at dinner to change his mind. He's just going to leave now. 

"Kaoru? Is it all right if.... I... have dinner with you?"

Kaoru's eyes opened to the size of saucers. He called me Kaoru, she thought. He called me Kaoru with out the honour.... ore? He said ore not sessha. 

"Kenshin?" She asked carefully, as if the very air around her might break if she did not. 

He shook the hair out of his face so she could see what she already feared. Instead of Kenshin's warm and innocent violet she stared into the glowing hard amber of Battousai's eyes. 

She realized that she had underestimated how bad whatever was coming would be. This wasn't just very bad it was the worst thing that could possible happen.

************

Battousai looked into Kaoru's stricken face and started to curse inside. It wasn't going to work. All he was doing was terrifying her. 

"Kenshin?" Kaoru asked again, looking torn between panic and being ill.

"Hai." Battousai said nodding. Whether he was the rurouni or Battousai he was still Kenshin, they were just different sides of the same man. "I would like to have dinner with you and talk. If you can't handle that then I will leave." Internally Battousai and the rurouni both cringed at his rudeness. Battousai started running through every curse he knew, mostly aimed at himself (a few were for the rurouni). He just wasn't any good at this.

Kaoru felt her temperature rise with the Battousai's words. Can't handle it, she'd show him can't handle it. Steam practically coming out of her eye sockets she turned to head to the eating area. "Fine then, let's eat."

Battousai let a small smile grace his lips while Kaoru's back was to him. He much preferred her this way. He found her anger to be incredibly attractive. Where the rurouni would have blushed at such a thought the hitokiri just smiled a little wider before returning his face to it's usual cold look. He followed after the girl, actually starting to look forward to his dinner with her. 

************

Despite her show of bravado Kaoru's insides were shaking. Her earlier worries seemed childish and simple compared to the one that now ate at her heart.

HE was here.

Yes, even though she had asked she knew that he was still Kenshin. Somewhere inside her she had always known that Battousai was as much a part of the man she loved as the rurouni was. What terrified her was that the part she knew, the part that was dear to her, would be overpowered and destroyed by this colder, darker self.

She sat down quickly at the table and started to dish rice into both of their bowls. Her movements were swift; more to cover up the slight trembling in her limbs than for any need for speed.

Battousai sat down across from her and she steeled herself to look up at him.

His eyes were cold, but wary. It was almost as if he were sizing her up as an opponent. Kaoru felt her palms start to sweat as she pondered that thought. She quickly dismissed it. Despite all the times she had pummelled him in the past she knew she couldn't stand against him in a real fight.

And if she knew that than so did Kenshin. No, that wary look had to be about something else. 

************

Battousai was reading her as he would an opponent. Only he had no intention of fighting. Actually he was just now realizing how stupid both of him had been. He, or rather the rurouni should have sat down and talked this over with Kaoru instead of just springing it on her like this.

Ruminating over their mistakes he picked up his chopsticks and started eating. Kaoru followed his actions and for the next few minutes the only sound was that of food being picked up, placed in mouths and chewed.

It didn't take long for this to wear on Kaoru's nerves. She put her rice down, barely touched, as her tightening throat was in danger of choking on the grain. 

"You said you wanted to talk with me," Kaoru said.

"Aa."

Kaoru waited for him to elaborate on that single syllable but Kenshin continued to eat, ignoring the woman across from him. 

Really, if she had thought about it Kaoru would not have reacted the way she did. While she could have gotten away with yelling "Kenshin no baka" and throwing the rice bucket at the rurouni it was something of a bad idea to do it to Battousai.

End of Part One 


	2. Part Two

Disclaimer: Watsuki Nobuhiro (and others) owns Rurouni Kenshin. I do not.

Authors note: Sorry this is so short but I thought I had better post something before Hatokirei was able to find me and chain me to the computer chair.

And Thanks: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I am overwhelmed. I am also incredibly insecure about what I write and I hope that this next piece is enjoyable.

Marstanuki, sorry I don't intend to make this a lemon. I love lemony goodness but I've never written one and I don't think they're ready for it anyway, at least not in this story.

A Meeting of Minds

By Colleen 

Part Two

Battousai stayed seated even though his muscles jumped with the reflexive need to deal with the attack. He reached out and caught the bucket with ease; in fact he didn't even have to look at it. Instead his eyes never left Kaoru's face. On anyone else it would have been amusing to watch anger turn to horror as they realised just whom they had attacked. On her it was just painful. 

"G-Gomen nasai," she said, voice trembling and eyes downcast. 

Battousai just looked at Kaoru, who was keeping her eyes firmly on her clenched hands so she wouldn't have to look back. Suddenly he found new respect for the rurouni. He'd always thought that his gentler self was useless around women but now that he was actually trying to deal with one again he realized that compared to him the rurouni was smooth. Mentally he picked out a nice wall in his mind and started to bash his head against it.

This wasn't going to work. If he stayed he would just end up destroying the trust she had in his other self. He stood up quickly and looked down at Kaoru who had become so still when he moved that he wasn't sure she was even breathing.

"Goodbye Kaoru." He turned to leave, intending to go to his room and bully the rurouni into taking control again, when he heard the crash of dinner plates behind him. He twisted back to see Kaoru standing there, breathing hard and looking even more terrified than she'd been after throwing the rice at him. The table lay on its side, the dishes and food from supper splattered across the floor. Apparently she had gotten up so fast that she'd turned the table over.

************

Kami no he WAS going to leave. She'd messed up everything. 

"Kenshin," the words 'please don't leave me' froze in her throat. It was going to be just like before, just like the time he'd left to go to Kyoto, just like.........

The hell it was.

"Baka, where do you think you're going?" She practically yelled at him. 

Battousai looked at her with something akin to shock. He blinked his amber eyes a few times then said "to bed," the two words sounding more like a question than a statement. 

Kaoru could have fallen over in relief. He wasn't going to leave her; he was just going to leave the room. She cast around for something to explain her outburst. She didn't have far to look. 

"Anou, could you help me clean up before you go?" She cringed right after she said it. Battousai doing housework, yah right. She didn't care, even if he laughed or sneered at her at least he wasn't leaving. 

She wasn't sure who was more surprised, him or her, when he gave a sharp nod and started to pick up the shattered remains of dinner. 

************

He couldn't believe that he was doing housework. He hated housework. He had never seen what the rurouni had found so interesting about cooking and cleaning and doing the laundry, especially the laundry. 

But he had been so surprised, stunned even, at those two times when Kaoru reacted to him as she would to the rurouni that he had started to pick up the shattered china without even thinking about it. One of the things both sides of him had in common was that they liked strong willed women. Kaoru certainly was one but she usually only acted it when Kenshin was the rurouni. True, Battousai would never let himself be hit the way the wanderer did but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy it when she tried. 

He shook his head slightly, he could have sworn he had just heard a voice give out a little shocked 'oro'. He ignored it and continued to pile up the broken debris.

Battousai looked up when Kaoru placed an empty bucket in front of him. He nodded his thanks and started to dump the plate shards into the container while Kaoru started to wash down the floor with the pail of water and rags she had gotten at the same time as the empty bucket. 

As they worked to clean up the mess Kaoru kept throwing glances at the manslayer. Kenshin threw the last bit of crockery into the bucket and looked at her with a questioning gaze.

"You have something you want to ask me?" He said quietly.

She averted her eyes for a moment then seemed to gather herself before she looked back at him and nodded. 

"Then ask."

"Kenshin," she began, sounding if she were trying to tread carefully with words, "why are you here, like this?"

Not entirely surprised by the question Battousai felt a smile pulling at his lips. Kaoru, however, was staring at him in shock. A smiling hitokiri was apparently something she wasn't expecting. 

"Actually," he told her, "this was the rurouni's idea."

************

Kaoru lost her balance. One moment she was on her knees in front of Kenshin the next she was face down on the floor. Strangely even in her shock her mind decided to notice a spot she had missed while cleaning. She wondered how long she might have stayed there staring at that glob of food if it hadn't been for the laughter. 

She sat back up on her knees and took in the most amazing sight. Battousai was laughing. His eyes were crinkled up in glee and Kaoru felt she should be insulted that his amusement was at her expense but it was such a surprise to find out that the hitokiri had a sense of humour that she couldn't muster any indignation up over it. 

In fact she felt her lips start to stretch out into a smile and before she knew it she was laughing along with Battousai. Their laughter lasted several minutes and Kaoru felt better for the release it provided. The horrible tension she had felt for so long had been, if not broken, then at least diminished. 

************

Battousai was rather surprised to be laughing. He'd never really thought of himself as having a sense of humour. He was someone who did what he needed to do to get the job done and laughter had never been a part of that. In fact any emotion, other than the berserker like rage that he used to kill, would have gotten in the way. It was another reason to love the woman laughing with him; she could prove to him that he was still human. 

Tomoe had shown him that he could be more than a killer but somehow over the years he had forgotten that. Kenshin's struggle to remain the rurouni had branded his war like half a demon and Battousai had almost come to believe it himself. 

In her presence he now knew that it wasn't true. It wasn't just the two of them laughing together that let him know that. Rather it was the pain in his heart when he thought of never doing it again.

No, that would not happen.

He would give control back to his gentler side. He was better equipped to live in this world than he was. However, he would watch and protect and even if she didn't know about it he would laugh. 

And along with the rurouni he would love.

They would never tell her of that love, in this he was in complete agreement with his gentler side. He knew she had some feelings for the rurouni but despite this little meeting with her she would never really be comfortable with the hitokiri.

And the truth was you couldn't have one without the other.

End of Part Two 


	3. Part Three

Disclaimer: Watsuki Nobuhiro and others own Rurouni Kenshin. I do not. 

Summary: Kenshin decides to introduce Battousai to Kaoru.

Author's note: I had a lot of trouble with the ending of this chapter. I rewrote and eventually dumped about half of it and I'm afraid it may still not be working. Ah well, give it a read and tell me what you think.

Thanks you to all my reviewers. I'm am so happy that you all like this story. I hope it continues to be of interest.

Oh and about Battousai laughing. I was surprised as well when he did it but I have no intention of telling Battousai that he can't do something.

I'm not that nuts. 

Yet.

A Meeting of Minds 

By Colleen

Part Three

It took a few moments after the merriment subsided before Kaoru realized that she still didn't really know why Battousai was here. "Anou, you said this was the rurouni's idea?"

"Hai," was all he said.

She gave him ten seconds.

"Mou Kenshin if you don't start explaining this right now I'll throw another bucket at you," she threatened. Picking up the pail of water she'd used to clean the floor Kaoru prepared to heave it at the hitokiri. The look in his eyes froze her place. It wasn't that it frightened her, because it didn't. Kenshin wasn't giving her the look, the one she'd seen when he battled against Jinei and Saitou. Instead he was gazing at her in something close to wonder, his amber eyes glowing with emotions she was suddenly to timid to name.

"The rurouni told me..."

"You can talk to him?" She squeaked, putting down the bucket with a thud and a splash. Kaoru knew that this meeting had somehow been the rurouni's idea, however, while Battousai and he seemed very different from one another she never thought they were so separated as to be able to talk to each other. 

"Only once," he told her, "we were able to meet in a dream." 

She nodded, relieved. Dreams were where anything was possible and conversations with yourself were almost the norm. "And he wanted you to talk to me?" 

He gave her one sharp nod. "When we met we... came to an agreement. He consented to accept my help when it was needed and I promised to return control back to him when the danger was past." 

Another layer of the tension that Kaoru had been building up over the last few days fell away with that statement. Kenshin, the Kenshin she knew, would no longer be at risk of disappearing. A moment later Kaoru frowned at the manslayer. While all of this was good news Battousai still shouldn't have been here as there wasn't any danger, was there? "That doesn't exactly explain why you're here, now," she said to him.

Battousai gave her another single nod in agreement. "The rurouni told me that you believe my being here will destroy him or rather that part of him that you know." 

"Will it?" She asked him, the relief of a moment ago forgotten as panic once again clutched at her stomach.

"No," he quickly assured her "or at least," he said, almost to himself, "not any longer." Battousai shook his head free of old thoughts and continued with what he was saying. "He wanted me to tell you about this because he doesn't want to hide himself from you anymore. He... we feel that you have the right to know all of him and that includes me."

Kaoru was suddenly caught between the relief that the Kenshin she knew and loved was all right and a warmth that started in her heart and extended through her entire body.

He wanted her to know him.

All the times she worried if Kenshin could ever love her were brushed away like so much lint. True, this wasn't a declaration of undying adoration but more one of everlasting trust and respect. While the first would have sent her spiralling into ecstasy the second was something she could hold on to. It was more real and somehow more fulfilling. As long as she was willing to be patient then everything else would come in time.

And if it took too long she could always throw another bucket at him.

************

Battousai took his leave after that, promising as he went that everything would be back to normal in the morning. He headed to his room, feeling a slight dent in his ego at Kaoru's look of relief when he'd told her that. He snorted at the thought, annoyed with himself over his annoyance and entered his room. He looked at the bedding waiting to be laid out to sleep upon and gave another snort. He ignored the futon and instead sat down against a wall with his sword leaning against his right shoulder. He'd never really gotten comfortable with sleeping lying down. Even the rurouni often gave into old instincts and slept in the sitting up position that he had used during the bakumatsu.

He sat there, waiting for the shift in his awareness that would signal the return of the rurouni's personality. Several minutes later, when nothing had happened, he started rummaging around in his mind looking for his elusive other half. 

Still nothing.

Fine. If the wanderer refused to come back then he would go to him. More irritated then angry he forced his mind to still, willing himself into a deep sleep.

************

Battousai could see the rurouni sitting on a log by the river. The hitokiri stalked up behind him, thoughts of strangling the other swordsman dancing through his mind. The wanderer turned and smiled up at him before he could get close enough to seriously consider following through with the thought. 

Battousai opened his mouth to voice a few of the well-chosen names he'd come up with this evening to call the rurouni. They stuck in his throat when he realized that the man's smile did not match his eyes.

Those lavender orbs were watching him warily, as if he were looking at something he'd once known that had suddenly mutate into something new and strange. Or perhaps it was more as if he'd suddenly realized he had never really know that thing at all.

It wasn't, Battousai thought, the first time he had seen the rurouni look at him like that. The same expression had been plain on the man's face at the end of their last dream meeting. The hitokiri cocked an eyebrow at his other half and waited for him to speak. The rurouni gave him another smile, this one actually reaching his eyes, before he turned back to look at the river. 

"Do you remember this place?" The wanderer asked him.

Battousai looked out at the rushing water and growled at the memory. "Aa, I stood here once, briefly. It was just after Jinei took Kaoru." He looked back down at the rurouni who was nodding his head.

"I really did want to kill him for that." 

Battousai stared at the rurouni in shock. He never thought he'd hear the man admit to such a feeling. Hell, he hadn't thought the man capable of it. He was all guilt and peace and love and atonement. He was supposed to have locked all of his more violent emotions away with the name Hitokiri Battousai.

The rurouni smiled a little sadly at the manslayer's expression. "I am still human," he told him. "And I am just realizing that we are more than violence and repentance. While each of those are our defining characteristic they are not only what we are."

Battousai sat down beside Kenshin on the log and said "took you long enough to figure that out."

The rurouni looked at him in surprise. "How long have you know?"

"Oh a good twenty, twenty five minutes."

With a 'you gotta be kidding me' oro the rurouni fell over backwards. Battousai leaned over him. "I'm the fighter not the deep thinker. You're the one whose is supposed to figure these things out first." He held out his hand to the wanderer who gave him a little glare before grabbing hold of it and letting the other swordsman to pull him back up to a sitting position.

"So is that revelation why we're here?" Battousai asked.

The other nodded. "I needed to think and this place is where I like to do that." The rurouni looked around a little at his surroundings. "Although I usually do not come here during my dreams."

"You can visit it in the real world tomorrow."

"No. I believe I will stay here tomorrow."

Battousai looked at the rurouni with confusion lightly etched on his face. Sudden horror twisted his features as he realized just what the other man meant.

"You are not staying here," Battousai told him through gritted teeth. "You have to go back and look after Kaoru and keep her safe. You can't stay here and hide."

"I would like to think of it as a holiday." The rurouni turned and looked pointedly at the other swordsman. "Besides, I am not the one who wants to hide."

The hitokiri stood suddenly, his left hand clenched in anger as the right moved towards the hilt of his sword. "No man calls me coward."

"Not even when that man is also you? Not even when that man is right?" The rurouni asked him, smiling.

For a smile it was perhaps the most frightening expression that Battousai had ever seen on either of their faces. 

His counter expression came close though. 

The hitokiri drew his blade and levelled it at the wanderer's head. "I am afraid of nothing and..."

The rurouni cut him off in mid sentence. "Not even afraid of hurting Kaoru?"

Battousai's shoulders slumped suddenly and the tip of his blade wavered then fell from its position of menace to bury itself safely in the sand at their feet. He closed his amber eyes and said, "We have worried her enough today and I promised her that you would be back." 

"You did not answer the question."

"Yes, damn it!" Battousai told him in a voice gone cold with anger. "Yes I'm afraid that I could hurt her. I wouldn't mean to but it would happen all the same." 

"And that is why you have to go back," the rurouni told him.

"Are you insane? Haven't you listened to a word I've said?" Battousai was seriously wondering if being locked away in his mind for a few hours had driven the rurouni mad.

"Yes I have. You once told me that you would die before you ever hurt Kaoru and I believe that. And I need you to believe it too. That is why I would like it if you would spend another day with her." The rurouni held his hands up to ward off the hitokiri's next argument. "Just one day, so she can get use to the idea of you protecting her should the need arise."

Battousai could taste his own defeat and he hated it. He would do as his other half asked but he wouldn't say yes without adding a parting shot or two. 

"Very well I will spend the day with her, but I will not do housework." He looked at the rurouni who already appeared disturbed by the thought. "That means no cooking, no cleaning and NO LAUNDRY." Battousai felt some small measure of revenge when he saw a giant sweat drop appear on the rurouni's head and heard a small, almost whispered oro escaped from his lips. 

"Anou, if you do not cook then Kaoru will." 

That stopped Battousai cold for a moment but he refused to back down from his earlier statement. "So be it," was all he had to say.

************

Battousai left him to his river bank shortly after that. The rurouni sat there, trying to think while his mind worried itself in circles. 

He really hoped he wasn't making a mistake. 

Originally when he planned to bring Battousai and Kaoru together he had expected to take over again after a very short while. He figured they would have to meet several times before they would be comfortable enough to really talk to each other. 

And then Battousai went and laughed.

He never laughed and once again the rurouni realized that he really didn't know himself very well at all. The killer was supposed to be cold and unfeeling but instead he loved the same woman his peaceful half loved and was able to laugh with more honesty than the rurouni did.

And although he didn't say anything about it that laugh had startled Battousai just as much as it had surprised the wanderer.

He couldn't take control back right now. He was afraid that if he did then the hitokiri would refuse to come out again for anything short of a cataclysm. He didn't want Battousai to go back to being just his dark shadow. 

And if anyone could stop that from happening it would be Kaoru.

End of Part Three


	4. Part Four

Disclaimer: Watsuki Nobuhiro (and others) owns Rurouni Kenshin. I do not.

Authors note: Hey, I'm alive and I actually wrote something (falls down in shock). I've been very stuck. Please review, I'm not sure how this is since it got stuck in the middle and then finished several months later and I'm not completely happy with it.

P.S. Please don't hurt me. 

A Meeting of Minds 

By Colleen 

Part Four

Even though he had come home and gone to bed rather late the night before Yahiko managed to crawl out of bed at his customary time the next morning. After getting dressed and taking care of the usual necessities he stopped off at the kitchen to talk to Kenshin for a few minutes. 

Only he wasn't there.

Yahiko sighed. He always enjoyed the few moments he got to talk to the redheaded samurai each morning. Even though Kenshin was always busy with some chore he would still give his attention to the young boy, listening to his hopes and fears and giving advice when asked. It was usually the only chance Yahiko had to talk man to man with someone during the day without Kaoru or some other woman butting in. 

And of course the fact that Kenshin wasn't making breakfast meant something even worse. 

It meant Kaoru would cook.

"Good morning Yahiko," a sleepy female voice said behind him. Kaoru yawned and continued. "Good morning Kensh..." She stopped abruptly when she realized he wasn't there. 

Yahiko cringed slightly before turning to look at his teacher and surrogate sister. It seemed as if his thoughts were about to become reality.

"Kenshin's not up yet?" She asked him.

"Guess not." 

Yahiko backed away from her as her eyes lit up with an awful sort of glee. He turned and was out the door before she'd grabbed up the first cooking implement.

There were a lot of things that Yahiko would and could face down but being in the same kitchen while Kaoru cooked was not one of them. There was something almost maniacal about the way she destroyed good food. He had actually come to believe that the act of touching a pot or a cutting knife caused her to be possessed by the spirit of the mischievous tanuki that she got her nickname from. 

Yahiko sought safety out in the yard, checking to see if Kenshin had forgone making breakfast to get an early start on the laundry. That thought withered quickly at the sight of an empty wash tub and bare drying poles. 

Maybe he really was asleep.

Yahiko shrugged and headed over to the dojo to get in a few swings before he would have to attempt to choke down Kaoru's breakfast. As he slid the door to the practice hall aside his mouth fell open just before his entire body froze in shocked amazement.

Kenshin was practicing.

While Yahiko had seen the older samurai fight any number of times he had never managed to catch him when he was just practicing. 

He was amazing. 

Kenshin fought off a hoard of invisible opponents, his body flowing with the moves as if he were able to shift from a solid to a fluid then back again. As his back was to Yahiko the boy continued to stare in opened mouthed admiration of the rurouni's abilities. However as the young man followed each hit an uneasy feeling started to gnaw at the edges of his mind. For a practice session Kenshin seemed to be in deadly earnest, even more so then when he fought against someone. In fact the closest thing Yahiko could compare it to was the time he had seen the former hitokiri fight Saitou. 

Yahiko snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of Kenshin sheathing his blade, his back still turned to the young man. An uneasy silence stretched out between them for a few seconds before Kenshin broke it. 

"Yahiko."

Yahiko swallowed hard. Kenshin's voice was piercingly cold and the boy quickly searched his memory for any transgressions that he might have committed. Unable to come up with anything he answered the other man. 

"Good morning Kenshin. Anou..." He broke off, uncertain of what he should say for a moment then thought he would go the safest route and settled with, "Kaoru's making breakfast, it will probably be ready in a few minutes."

The man in front of him stiffened at the news and Yahiko wondered if he'd said the wrong thing after all before Kenshin nodded and said, "I will be there shortly."

"Ok," Yahiko said and turned to head back to the kitchen. He made himself walk at his normal pace even though he felt an overwhelming need to race back to the kitchen and warn Kaoru that something was wrong. Assuming something actually was wrong and he wasn't just imagining that Kenshin was different.

That was it. Yahiko whole body relaxed as he realised that he had just imagined the wrongness. At the most Kenshin had been a little put off at being interrupted while he was practicing and Yahiko's mind had blown up a little early morning testiness into something dire. His steps lighter he fairly bounced into the kitchen to face Kaoru's breakfast. 

************

Kaoru frowned as she poked with a chopstick at the large white glob of something that was supposed to be rice. 

Maybe she'd put too much water in it when she cooked it? 

While rice should be sticky enough to hold together while eating it she suspected that it shouldn't look and act like household glue. She gave it another poke and after a brief struggle left the stick in the rice when it refused to let the thing go. She shrugged; it would probably taste the same even if it didn't look very good. Ignoring it she turned to check the miso soup and was busy scorching it when Yahiko came back into the kitchen. 

"Oh Yahiko could you go wake up Kenshin, breakfast should be ready in a few minutes."

"Anou," Yahiko said, throwing a look outside towards the dojo, "he's already awake."

Kaoru gave a little smile at the thought of Kenshin back to normal and already hard at work doing the morning chores.

"So he's doing the laundry?" She asked, not really expecting to get any other answer.

"No, actually he was practicing." Kaoru looked at him confusion. "You know, with his sword?"

CLANG

Yahiko jumped back to avoid the splatters of superheated miso soup when Kaoru suddenly dropped the ladle she had just pulled out of the liquid. 

"Ahhhh, watch what you're doing busu," Yahiko yelled at Kaoru. "Kaoru?" He asked when, instead of reacting to his insult as usual, she just stared off into space. "Hey busu snap out of it." 

"Huh?" Kaoru shook off her brief worry about Kenshin and bent down to pick up the ladle. Yahiko snorted and had turned towards the eating area when the ladle slammed into the top of his head making his eyes bug out to three times their usual size. "That's for calling me busu, Yahiko chan."

"DON'T CALL ME CHAN." 

************

Even though he was busy worrying about how Kaoru would react to the fact that he, rather that the rurouni was still here, Battousai still managed to notice the sounds of a fight coming from the kitchen and stop. He waited, knowing better than to get between Yahiko and Kaoru this early in the morning (or at any other time for that matter). While the rurouni found a certain delight in watching the two of them fight like brother and sister the hitokiri had long wanted to separate them and send them off to separate corners to cool down. Since he suspected that it wouldn't work and would only lose him his temper he gave the brawl the few moments it needed to end before stepping into the kitchen for breakfast. 

Kaoru, her ire at Yahiko forgotten with Kenshin's presence, turned towards him. At the sight of him her cheerful expression fell way to surprise, fear and then hit bottom and bounced; quickly building up to a full out anger. 

Battousai wondered briefly what the world would think of the most feared manslayer in all of Japan having to fight the impulse to back away from a small slip of a girl. Mentally he shook his head, he'd thought the rurouni was the only one who would react that way when Kaoru was angry. It was, he thought, another one of those annoying moments when he realized that his two natures weren't as separated as he'd always thought.

********

Kaoru was very angry. It wouldn't have been going too far to say that she was in fact royally pissed off. She feed the anger, carefully stoking it to a pure rage. 

He had lied to her.

If she had thought about it for a moment she would have realized that most of her anger was merely a cover for the flash of fear she'd felt for Kenshin when she saw Battousai standing there. Fear that would have eaten her alive in a few seconds if the anger hadn't come to her rescue. 

Luckily, as she was casting about for a suitable weapon common sense made an unusually prompt appearance and stopped her. She didn't have a hope of fighting against him and she couldn't trust that he would forgive an attack the way he had with the rice tub last night. She reined in her desire to bokken him into the next era and slid her anger down to a frosty disapproval. 

******** 

"Good Morning Kenshin," Kaoru's simple greeting seemed to hang icicle like in the air and Yahiko could have sworn that the originally warm kitchen had dropped about five degrees with those three words. Wondering what had set his teacher off he looked at Kenshin for an answer. 

Oh crap.

The eyes, the stance, everything about him screamed warrior, samurai, death barely contained. Yahiko gulped as his earlier sense of discomfort around Kenshin came back full force. This was who he had watched practicing this morning, this was who he had talked with and he realized with a flash of knee weakening certainty; this was who Kaoru had just been within a hair's breadth of attacking. 

"Good Morning Kaoru," Battousai replied, his voice was cold but failed to match the icy depths of Kaoru's. He moved past the two of them and sitting down at the table, waited for her to serve him breakfast. Yahiko, moving slowly and mentally preparing to bolt from both adults if need be, carefully took his normal seat, one that would unfortunately place him between Kenshin and Kaoru. 

Why, he wondered, didn't they ever have a normal breakfast?

********

Kaoru served them in a frozen silence that Battousai noticed even the boisterous Yahiko was unwilling to break. They all, Kaoru included, would have eaten as quickly as possible but the rice, if that was what it was, proved difficult to get out of the bowl much less chew and swallow.

That Yahiko refrained from complaining about the poor food was something of a miracle. That Battousai also failed to mention it just proved that he was neither as crazy nor as suicidal as people often believed him to be.

********

Choking down the last mouthful of rice Kenshin rose from the table and without so much as a thank you for the meal left the room, heading back out to the dojo's compound.

Kaoru clenched her fists, the knuckles turning white from the pressure and went after him, yelling at Yahiko to wash the dishes on her way out. Normally this would have sent the young samurai off on an angry triad but instead he simply started to collect the dirty dishware glad to be inside alone rather than outside between an enraged Kaoru and a scary Kenshin. 

********

Kenshin was nowhere to be seen by the time that Kaoru made it out into the yard. Growling through her teeth and looking for something to hurt she stalked over to the laundry area of the compound and kicked the wash tub. This induced some hopping up and down and the rubbing of her stubbed toe and was quickly followed by the decision that what she really wanted to hurt wasn't herself. 

No, what she really wanted to do was seriously impair Kenshin's ability to lie to her again. Too bad she didn't have any way of doing that. 

With a little sigh and a slight limp Kaoru headed over to the dojo proper. She didn't know where Kenshin had taken off to but if she wanted to face him without losing her temper it would be best to work out some of her frustration in a practice session before he came back. With this thought in mind she slid open the door to the practice area, coming upon a sight that left her mirroring Yahiko's earlier moment of shock and surprise in the same doorway. 

Kenshin stood facing her in the middle of the hall. His head was slightly bowed and his overgrown hair spilled down over his eyes, hiding them. Neither his presence nor his stance were what had her alarmed, however. Instead it was the two wooden practice swords that he held casually in both hands that had her worried. 

Kaoru opened her mouth to yell at him or perhaps just talk to him but found her throat had seized up and nothing would come out. He looked up at her then, both eyes a heated gold and she snapped her mouth closed and waited. He looked down at the wooden swords then held one out to her. 

"Kenshin?" Kaoru managed, grateful that his name came out in a normal tone rather then the high pitched squeak she had expected. 

"Practice with me," Kenshin said, his voice brooking no argument.

"Practice?" Kaoru winced as that word did come out in a squeak. Kenshin had never let her practice with him and she had never known if it was because he was afraid he would hurt her or if he felt that he was so much better then her that she wouldn't be able to keep up with him.

She smiled suddenly, if evilly at that last thought. This would let her show him just how much she could take and maybe, if she were very lucky, she would get to follow through on her earlier desire to whack him upside the head for scaring her the way he had. 

"I would love to practice with you Kenshin," she said sweetly as she stepped forward to claim the offered sword. He released it to her with an unreadable expression that caused her to wonder just how smart (or perhaps stupid) this latest move of hers was. As she took up the first position across from him her common sense managed to make a second appearance that morning and quietly suggested to her that she just back away from the practice session now. 

"Begin!"

Of course Kaoru's common sense rarely had good timing.

End of Part 4


	5. Part Five

Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin. I'm just borrowing them for a little fun.

A Meeting of Minds

By Colleen

Part 5

Kenshin suspected, from the way that his head was attempting to split apart, that the rest of him thought that practicing with Kaoru was a VERY BAD IDEA.

TOO BAD was his answer to that.

__

I don't want her to be afraid of me was the reply that floated up from the depths of his mind.

Battousai sighed. He had long understood why the rurouni had avoided sparring with Kaoru despite her unhappiness over his continual, if polite refusals. If she believed that she could prevail against him physically then she would continue to be at ease in his presence. This was why the wanderer allowed the hits to connect and sometimes even provoked her wrath, using it to let her blow off steam and remind her that she was safe with him at the same time. So while intellectually she had to know that Kenshin could take her down without much effort, in her heart each physical triumph worked to let her ignore that fact.

Practicing with her would usually have been out of the question. If he let her win she would have been insulted, if they ended in a draw she wouldn't have believed it and if he did it for real she would've been on the ground in seconds. 

Then the fear would start.

And that was why, even though he could avoid seriously damaging her body, he was afraid of what he would do to her spirit. 

But that was the rurouni. 

And since the rurouni insisted that Battousai spend the day with Kaoru so she could get to know him he would make sure that she saw all of him. It was also the only way she would ever get to practice with him, because when she lost it would be Battousai that she would fear, not the rurouni. 

And since he was certain she was already terrified of him it shouldn't change anything. 

*******

The rurouni sat quietly by the stretch of river that curved and coiled its way across a landscape of old dreams and never forgotten memories. The emotions that the place usually invoked in him were overpowered by pure frustration as his hands clenched around his fishing pole in an attempt to symbolically throttle Battousai's neck. 

Sometimes his other self was such an idiot.

********

Kaoru was wary as she and Kenshin circled, the two of them remaining just outside the other's striking range. Once upon a time Kaoru would have leapt into the battle without a second thought. However, since meeting Kenshin she'd learned the patience and wisdom of taking the time to study her opponent, rather than just jumping in and bashing away indiscriminately at them. 

Still, no matter how many times she'd seen him fight, she didn't think there would ever be enough time to figure out what Kenshin would do during a match.

What she did know was that she wanted to prove herself to him, even more than she wanted to give Kenshin his lumps for the anguish he'd recently put her through. She could never really tell if he believed in her abilities as a warrior. Especially given that the first time they'd met he'd had to save her from the fake Battousai. And anytime after that, when she'd really shone as a swordswoman, was when Kenshin had been somewhere else, fighting his own battles.

********

Surprised, Kenshin realized that Kaoru wasn't going to be the one to attack first. He had thought she would throw herself into battle against him, much the way she had attacked both him and then later Gohei on the night they'd first met.

He considered waiting her out but while careful consideration of an opponent's ability was one of his strong points he was sure of Kaoru's style. He would have no problems with it. Lifting his wooden sword a little higher he took the step that would take him into Kaoru's circle and bring her into his.

********

Kaoru grit her teeth as she blocked the first, deceptively lazy looking stroke that Kenshin aimed at her right shoulder. The gritting was because she had barely managed to hold her sword against his. He held the position for a moment before he released and stepped back, although not so far as to be outside of her striking range. He stood there waiting and Kaoru had to wonder how someone could appear to smirk and keep his face blank at the same time. She clenched her teeth a little harder, pain spiking along her jaw to her temple as she realized that he was playing with her. 

She came very close to tossing aside all reason. The thought of that imagined smirk appearing on his face for real stopped her before she could do something stupid. This was a sparring match and a practice at that so she would treat it as one. That way if anyone did something stupid it would probably be him.

"Head," she called, warning her 'partner' of the strike she would be attempting. She brought her sword down towards his skull hard enough that the resulting gust of air blew both her and Kenshin's hair back from their faces. Kenshin solidly blocked the move.

One handed. 

Kaoru pushed harder against Kenshin's shinai but he didn't budge and inch. It was if he were a tree. A tree with deep roots and limbs so strong that Kaoru's strike didn't even rate as a light breeze. With a push Kenshin sent Kaoru flying. She landed on her rump and skidded down the length of the hall before coming to a stop. 

********

Yahiko stopped in mid dish wash when he heard the sound of two wooden swords as they clashed together. He dropped the plate he was washing back into the sudsy water and ran quickly out the kitchen door. As he crossed the compound to the practice hall his mind tried diligently to explain to him why doing this was a very bad idea. However, the thought of missing Kaoru and Kenshin as they squared off against each other held too much appeal to be ignored. Once at the dojo he crawled across the veranda until he could bring his eye up to the crack where the two slightly warped doors didn't quite meet. He almost pulled back when he saw his teacher sitting on the floor very close to him but her exclamation of pain clued him into the situation and he stayed where he was and continued to watch.

********

"Itai," Kaoru's pain clenched eyes opened, looking slightly shocked before regaining her normal steely glint of determination. Then she was up and across the dojo so quickly that Battousai had to repress a blink of surprise.

She came at him in a flurry of called strikes. Kenshin, continuing to block each of them one handed, backed up to allow Kaoru some movement as she attacked. He smiled at the sweaty, violent young woman. The smile was one of genuine admiration but Kaoru obviously didn't take it that way and it provoked an even faster round of hits. Kenshin's smile widened and he had to admit that she really was good.

Oh, he could still have beaten her blindfolded but she was strong, skilled and determined. In the slight gloom of the hall her ki shone brightly in Battousai's mind and he suspected, no, he knew that in a real battle it would burn with an almost blinding light. Unbidden the thought of what other activities would cause her to glow like that flowed through his mind and were quickly cut off at mid-point. 

It was quite possibly the fasted he'd ever sliced anything in half.

********

Yahiko watched in breathless wonder as Kaoru's lightening fast attacks once again failed to do more than push Kenshin back as he blocked each strike. The young boy could tell that his teacher was tiring and it wouldn't be long before she collapsed in a puddle at Kenshin's feet. Kenshin would end up taking her without even having to land another shot.

********

Sanosuke let himself in at the dojo's gate and strolled over to the kitchen looking for some breakfast. With luck Kenshin would have saved him some leftovers, as Sano was his customary hour late for the meal. 

Knowing the swordsman's usual schedule the young fighter had expected to find him either cleaning up from breakfast or doing some other household chore. So it was with some surprise that he found the house empty and the kitchen buried under the remains of a breakfast that made going hungry seem like a joy and privilege. Worried he called out Kenshin's name and took his search back out to the dojo's yard. The sound of Kaoru no doubt beating Yahiko into a fine dry powder came to him from the training hall and he relaxed. If Jo chan was training the kid instead of fretting over Kenshin then he had to be somewhere close by.

Heading towards the hall he was once again surprised by something out of place. There, kneeling at the dojo's doors, was the brat who should have been getting walloped at the moment. With a slight frown on his face Sano headed over to find out what was going on. Whatever it was it must have been pretty fascinating because Sanosuke managed to get right up beside the kid and speak before he'd even noticed that someone was there. 

Yo, Yahiko chan wha...

Sanosuke's question became quickly muffled as the boy leapt straight up, wrapped himself around Sano's head and slapped one of his hands over his mouth, stopping his question. 

"Shhhh, they'll hear you."

Sano pealed Yahiko's hand from his mouth; "they'll hear a lot more then me if you don't get off." 

********

Ahhhhh, he was still smirking and despite her best efforts he wasn't even breathing hard. Kaoru on the other hand was sweating profusely and didn't know how much longer she could last before she would have to give in to quivering muscles and panting breaths.

She took some small comfort in the fact that she had managed to back him up against the far wall of the dojo and that he now had nowhere left to go. She raised her sword, ignoring the pain as her tired arms screamed at the movement. She held the shinai high and steady and putting all her remaining strength into it she tried once again to land a head shot. 

Kenshin blocked the hit and pushed back. He twisted at the same time and Kaoru suddenly found herself turned and slammed up against the wall she had just backed Kenshin up against. She made an attempt to push him off but was unable to move. Kenshin had pinned her hands and shinai with his wooden sword and his body was too close to hers to allow kicking space. He leaned forward to whisper in her ear.

"Enjoying the practice?"

Kaoru growled low in her throat and started to struggle, bucking against him in an attempt to get loose so she could continue trying to beat him into the ground. His snarl stopped her and startled, she looked up into his eyes.

They smouldered hot and.......hungry... and she, panting hard and fired through with adrenaline, felt an equal hunger stir within her and strive to answer it.

He was also, she was surprised to notice, finally breathing hard, although she didn't think that the recent exercise was the cause. Kenshin reached out with his free hand as if to caress her face and even as a twinge of fear, not of him but of the unknown, laced its way up her spine she leaned forward to met him half way.

AHHHHHHH!!

The screaming interruption snapped their attention away from each other and towards a flying bundle of Yahiko. The boy hit the floor and slid along the well-worn boards, stopping just a few inches from their feet.

"I told you to get..." Sano's voice petered out as he took in Kenshin and Kaoru's positions and realized that he had interrupted something he was beginning to think would never happen. Them. Together. In an intimate situation. 

And he had just screwed it up. 

"....off," he finished lamely and wondered just how long the two of them would spend beating his head in.

Kenshin stepped back from Kaoru and handed her his shinai before turning to leave. He stalked down the length of the hall and collected his Sakabatou from the corner he had left it in, ignoring Yahiko and Sano as he did.

Her voice stopped him at the doors. 

"Kenshin?" His name held all her worries, fears and wants and it froze him in place for a moment. 

"Thank you for the practice session Kaoru." He walked out the door. He didn't look back.

********

Kenshin....no damn it...Battousai walked steadily towards the living quarters. Torn between the desire to either thank Sano and Yahiko for their timely interruption, or turn back and castrate the two of them before pinning them to a nice out of the way wall, he instead put all his concentration into getting to his room.

Just one more second......

He gritted his teeth against the thought and tried to bury it in the back of his mind.

Just one more second and he would have....

He slammed the sliding door to his room open and then slammed it shut even harder after entering. 

Just one more second and he would have touched her....

He dropped to his knees breathing hard.

Just one more second and he would have touched her.... 

...and he wasn't sure that anything could have stopped him after that.

********

Sanosuke continued to stare in the direction that Kenshin had gone long after he had departed. 

Damn but he was scary when he got like that. 

Sano swallowed painfully and turned towards Kaoru as he tried to work up enough spit to actually talk to her, even though he wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't even certain if he had interrupted something or if he had just come to her rescue.

A moment later he was flat on his back and trying to piece together what had just happened. He was certain that Yahiko had been over by Kaoru and yet he was also certain that that was what had hit him. What he wasn't sure about was how the young boy had suddenly become a human missile. He pushed the groaning kid off of his face to find Kaoru towering over him. 

Just how she had suddenly become over six feet tall and with flaming red eyes was also something he just knew he was never going to figure out. There was however something he did know for sure. 

He had most definitely interrupted something.

********

Taking a nap just a short time after waking up and suffering physical and mental stress would be a difficult thing for most people to manage. 

Battousai wasn't most people.

Although his current 'nap' was more a matter of self-hypnosis then sleep it still served the same purpose. It would let him root out the rurouni and return control to him.

Or at least it should have.

It wasn't difficult to find the path to the river and the walk, although longer than it should have been, was easy enough. Eventually he was able to push through whatever was attempting to delay him and the path he walked spilled out along the small strip of sand that ran the length of the river. His usual sitting log was there. A fishing pole and a bucket of bait sat beside it, abandoned.

Battousai growled low in his throat at finding the rurouni gone. If the wanderer was hiding from him he would.... well he didn't know what he would do although he was certain that it wouldn't be pleasant. With such thoughts to keep him entertain he settled into a comfortable standing position to wait. 

With little to do he found his thoughts drifting back to the fight with Kaoru. Trying to regain some of his icy composure where she was concerned he took a deep breath and mentally took the practice session apart. Without emotions to clutter his thoughts he would remember her passion for the sword, the strength of her blows, her skill, the power of her movements....

.....the press of her body against his as she fought for leverage.

Battousai hissed as he released the stale air from his lungs and considered throwing himself in the river in the hopes that the cold water would drive the memory from his mind and body. 

"It won't help."

"What?" Startled Battousai turned towards the only other person that could possibly exist in this place, his mouth dropping open in surprise as he took in the sight of him.

"Cold water, it won't help." 

Sopping wet did not begin to describe him. The rurouni's hair was glued to his face with water and it released a shower of drops with each breath he took. His clothing was likewise drenched and he sprayed liquid with even the smallest of movements. His gi was plastered to his skin and the white hakama he wore were so heavy with moisture that they threatened to fall and wrap themselves around his ankles.

Battousai briefly wondered why he wasn't doubled over with laughter at the sight of him when he looked into the rurouni's eyes.

Although they were still their normal violet colour there was nothing innocent in them at the moment. They burned with the same hunger and need that his did.

As one they sat down on the log and started out at the water.

"We're screwed, aren't we?" 

It wasn't really a question, the rurouni answered it anyway.

"Yes, I believe we are."

End of Part 5


	6. Chapter 6

Still don't own them. For full disclaimer and other info please see Part 1.

Authors note: Well this was a long time coming and I'm not sure how it is. When I started writing on this again I found out that any notes I'd had for this were all in my head and after 3 or 4 years I had forgotten what was supposed to happen. Hopefully I won't end up to far off track though.

A Meeting of Minds

by Colleen

Part 6

How exactly do you mollify a woman who wants to take your head off and who has the training to make a very good attempt at it?

"Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Kaoru growled at him.

Nope, thought Sano, his face mashed up against the wooden floors of the dojo, that's not working.

Kaoru growled again before lifting her foot off the back of Sano's neck. She shifted her gaze to Yahiko for a moment and was impressed that any human could go as white and boneless as he managed to pull off. Jellyfish would have been jealous.

And she still hadn't even gotten to the yelling part yet.

She opened her mouth to start when Sano looked up. "Jou-chan," he said quietly, "If I had known you and Kenshin were..." His sentence bled off and Kaoru closed her mouth, suddenly and acutely aware of the positions Kenshin and she had been in when they had been interrupted.

Nope, even that wouldn't stop her.

Kaoru's verbal harangue chewed up one side of Sano and down the other. He pulled his shoulders up around his ears in an attempt to cut the noise and settled down to ride out the storm.

--------000--------

Two men, one dry, the other soggy sat tensely on a log by the edge of a river, contemplating the water as it rushed by.

The man dressed in dry clothing picked up a twig and flicked it towards the water, watching it as it was swept away and drowned. Strange, he remembered the river like this the last time he had been there for real but every time he had recently visited it in this dream its nature, while fast, had been one of contemplation not the raging pull of water it currently was.

Still if this dream reflected the way either of them were feeling at the moment its wildness was hardly surprising and it probably explained why the man beside him had taken so long to make it back to this spot. His improvised attempt to 'cool off' had probably swept him down river a good mile of so before he could have made the shore.

The dryer man would have smirked at the thought if he hadn't been contemplating his own immersion just before the other arrived.

His damp companion opened his mouth.

"No, I am not going back again."

Rurouni closed his mouth, thought for a moment and then attempted to speak once again.

"No, I don't care that I promised to stay the whole day."

A mouth shut closed and a brain wracked itself once again.

An intake of breath and a parting of lips.

"No, nothing you say will change my mind."

Breath rushed out in an aggravated sound somewhere between a sigh and a growl.

"Would you consider coming back in a week or two?" Rurouni asked, slightly startled that the other had finally allowed him to get a sentence out.

Amber eyes glared back at him. "No."

The aggravated sound was definitely a growl this time.

"Why not?"

It really was a good thing that neither of the two men had populated the dream with any other creatures than themselves, a few fish and some worm bait. If they had the resulting stampede to get away from the out lashing of battle aura would have trampled the surrounding dreamscape flatter than a tatami mat. As it was even the few fish that were around waiting to be caught made themselves scarce and vowed not to return for the rest of the year.

As for the worms well...best not to ask.

--------000--------

Kaoru shivered slightly as she soaked in cold water and wondered why she hadn't added heating the bath to the long list of chores she had dumped on Sano and Yahiko once she had finished chewing them out.

Then she remembered that for some reason she'd thought that a cool bath might do her some good.

Of course, she really didn't want to think about just why it had sounded like a good idea to her. She'd tried to explain the decision away as a reasonable response to being all hot and sweaty from her sparring match with Kenshin but, it wasn't really working. She planted her face in her hands and groaned a little, knowing but unwilling to admit even to herself that hot and bothered probably better summed up the way she was feeling.

Another reason to groan was how Kenshin would probably react after this. If he continued to 'be' Battousai then he'd probably just go cold and ignore her as much as he could. If he reverted to the Kenshin she knew best, the sometimes silly but always reliable Rurouni then he'd probably spend the next few weeks being helpful while managing to skitter out of touching range, assuming he didn't spend the next while pulling an out and out ghost routine and manage to stay out of sight as well.

She wasn't even sure which of the two scenarios would be worse and she still hadn't come up with a plan that would snap him out of it. Or at least a plan that didn't involve her bokken and his head in close proximity.

Still undecided as to what to do Kaoru got out of the bath and quickly towelled off, trying to impart some warmth back into her body through friction. She pulled on the light yukata she'd brought out with her and slipped into her bathroom geta on the way out.

Crossing the yard she could hear Sano and Yahiko start up their third fight since she'd dumped a list of household chores on them. She was starting to make bets that by their fifth fight the two of them would end up in traction, and she just might be the one putting them there.

She slipped back out of her shoes before entering the house and padded down the hallway to her room, still shivering slightly from the cold water.

"Those were worms?"

What? She spun around looking for the voice she'd just heard.

"No, I don't think you'll be catching any fish with those."

It was Kenshin's voice, and it was coming from his room. Did he have someone in there with him?

A moment of jealousy passed through Kaoru's body before she dismissed the idea, he hadn't had time.

Probably.

Without even thinking about it she found herself at the door to his room, listening for any more conversation. When none came she timidly knocked at the door.

Nothing.

Concerned now she carefully slid the door open and looked in. Kenshin was sitting on the floor and leaning up against a wall with his sword against his shoulder. He was also fast asleep.

Huh?

"Worms," Kenshin said in a disbelieving voice.

Kaoru moved a little closer to him, "Kenshin?"

Nothing.

She moved even a little closer, peering down at him intently. Then she realized that despite the fact that he'd just spoken he was actually asleep.

Other than a nightmare she remembered him having that woke her up a while back she'd never noticed him talking in his sleep before.

A noise outside startled her and she looked up, listening. It took a moment but she soon realized that it was Sano and Yahiko starting up their fourth fight. Sighing in annoyance she was just about to leave and go stop the two of them before they could get to their fifth fight when she was tackled and pulled to the floor.

--------000--------

Battousai and Rurouni were both marvelled over what had happened to the worms, not so much because it was strange, which it was, but because of the fact that in what was really their dream they had managed to come up with something like that.

"Worms." Battousai said his voice full of disbelief.

"Apparently," Rurouni said, shaking his head.

Battousai opened his mouth to comment further but both his and Rurouni's heads snapped to attention.

"Someone's in the room with us," Rurouni said.

Battousai's eyes narrowed as he tried to sense if the intruder meant them harm, while preparing to act if that should be the case.

And he never even noticed as Rurouni crept up behind him and pushed.

--------000--------

Battousai took down the intruder, noticing as he did that he hadn't even bothered to draw his sword. Whoever it was probably didn't pose much of a threat, in fact it was probably Sano or Yahiko come to complain about the well deserved retribution that Kaoru had no doubt dished out to them.

If it was them he'd be happy to ladle a little more on them himself. If it wasn't them whoever it was would be facing a very pissed off former assassin, since he couldn't at the moment get back at Rurouni.

He couldn't believe that the bastard had pushed him. When he got hold of him again what had happened to the worms would pale in comparison to what he would do to him.

"K.. K.. Kenshin?"

He snapped out of contemplating just what he could do with a length of rope, a tuning fork and the bucket of former worms and looked down at who he had tackled and was now laying on top of.

Crap.

Golden eyes widened as he stared into startled blue ones.

"Uhhh."

Double crap.

Get off of her you idiot, get off of her now.

He shifted, intending to do just that. The movement informed him suddenly of every curve the young woman beneath him possessed as well as just how thin the material of the robe Kaoru was wearing was.

Her body was cool under his, something he was sure he could remedy.

That thought alone would have gotten him to his feet in a horrified rush but Kaoru chose that moment to shift under him, the movement just enough to slide their bodies into a position where they seemed to fit together perfectly.

They both shuddered and all thoughts of getting up seemed to fly from his head.

"Kenshin?" Kaoru's voice was soft with an undercurrent of both worry and something that felt like longing. Two emotions that Battousai was feeling himself in abundance, along with a little surprise that the woman under him hadn't already tried to kick him off her and follow that through with a long piece of wood to the side of his head.

"Kaoru," Kenshin said in a choked voice, part of his mind screaming at him to get up and apologise. The rest of his mind was having thoughts he wouldn't have allowed himself to even contemplate as the Rurouni, much less as he was now.

And yet still he was having them.

Whatever he might have said to her next was lost as a loud bang and arguing voices heralded the arrival of Sano and Yahiko entrance into the house. As one Battousai and Kaoru looked from their position on the floor towards the still open door of Kenshin's room.

Well at the very least it got him to his feet. In a flash he was through the sliding door and closing it carefully behind him with Sanosuke and Yahiko just steps away.

"Hey Kenshin, how's... it...gulp." Sano's voice trailed off and Yahiko moved slightly towards and behind him as they both saw and felt the glare that Battousai was giving them.

"I would have thought Kaoru would have assigned the two of you a few chores for interrupting our... training session. I'm rather surprised that you've finished them."

"Yeah, well you know, all work and no play..." Sanosuke's voice trailed off again. Did that glare just get worse?

"All work and no play?" Kenshin asked, echoing Sano's words.

"Is exactly what we deserve, right Yahiko?" Honestly he wasn't really afraid of Battousai, really, but he also wasn't that stupid either, no matter what anyone might think.

Yahiko just nodded and started backing away.

"So we'll just go do that work thing and you, have a nice day." Sano winced as he said that and backed away with Yahiko while keeping an eye out for Jou-chan, expecting the swordswoman to step out of another room and add to their woes.

Truthfully when it came down to it he was actually more afraid of Kaoru. After all the only thing Battousai would do was probably kill him. Kaoru, he was certain, could come up with far worse.

Maybe they'd go get the groceries Kaoru wanted. Even if they'd be breaking their backs dragging home the bulk items Jou-chan had on her list it would probably be safer than staying here. Besides they could always stop in at the Akabeko for a little snack before heading back.

Yeah, a little sake, er snack would be good right now, after all he hadn't been able to get any breakfast this morning and having seen this mornings remains of it he doubted Yahiko had eaten much either.

Once they'd backed up enough to make it out the door Sano sent Yahiko off for the list and told him to meet him at the gate.

Now the only thing he'd need to do is see if he could get the kid to ask Tae for a tab because he seemed to remember something about hell freezing over before she'd extend anymore credit to him.

Women.

End Part 6

Author's note: Sano and Yahiko have some of the worst timing don't they?


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Don't own. For full disclaimer please see Part 1.

Author's note: And on I babble.

A Meeting of Minds

By Colleen

Part 7

Kaoru looked down at herself and felt her cheeks flame up in embarrassment. Being tackled to the floor had caused her yukata to gape open in places that just shouldn't be allowed to gape. Listening as Kenshin intimidated her student and the resident freeloader in the hallway she pulled the two halves of her robe tightly together and carefully stood up, mindful of the noise that would occur should she end up tripping by catching a foot in the fabric of her clothing.

She fidgeted, uncertainty hopping from one foot to the other as she tried to figure out what to do. One part of her, the part that had shuddered when Kenshin and she had been lying together on the floor wanted her to jump him as soon as he re-entered the room. The rest of her told her to just apologise for invading his room and get out, get changed and find something to do for the rest of the day that would be as far away from him as possible.

She really hated that second part of her, mostly because she suspected that what it wanted was exactly what she would end up doing.

Darn it she wasn't a little girl and it wasn't as if she'd never offered before. Of course Kenshin had either failed to understand the offer or had as usual skilfully evaded taking her up on it, not that she'd pressed him to do so.

She blushed again. Of course the offer she'd made had sounded more like a debt of gratitude rather than an act of desire. Although to be truthful both emotions had been tied up in it at the time.

The door slid open then and she started slightly as Kenshin slipped through. Outside she could just make out Sano telling Yahiko to go grab the grocery list, which meant that in a few minutes she would be alone in the house with Kenshin.

But alone to do what?

--------000--------

When Battousai re-entered the room he firmly squashed down the disappointment Kaoru was standing there, clothing firmly in place rather than still laying on the floor, waiting for him. Actually he ought to consider himself lucky that she hadn't been waiting to attack him the moment he came back in, certainly he deserved it.

"Kaoru I'm sorry for.../ Kenshin I'm sorry for..."

The two of them stepped back, flustered that they'd both just tried to apologise at the same time.

"Kaoru," he said, having managed to start speaking again before she did, "I apologise for my earlier unseemly actions. I hope that you will pardon my reacting to your being here in such a way." Mentally Battousai cringed. Saying sorry was not something he was good at; generally it tended to be the Rurouni's specialty.

"No Kenshin, it's I who should be apologising for coming into your room, although I did knock it was obvious that you were asleep and I shouldn't have intruded."

The silence that followed was one long moment of uncomfortable.

"Why did you need to see me anyway?"

"Oh, it was nothing. I was just worried when I heard you talking in your sleep, something about fishing?"

"Ah."

"Anyway I had better get to my room and change," Kaoru said, edging around Battousai on her way to the door. He backed slightly away from her, believing that she was frightened of him as he didn't have any possible way of knowing that she was actually afraid of the part of herself that was telling her to jump him and strip off his clothing with her teeth.

Battousai shadowed his eyes with his bangs, distancing himself even as he watched her through the strands of his hair. She slid the door open to leave but hesitated before she could step through.

"Kenshin?"

"Yes," he replied, hiding a little more in his hair.

Kaoru turned towards him and took a deep breath. "Would you join me for lunch at the Akabeko?" She asked in an explosive rush.

Battousai blinked twice, first at the deep breath, he suspected she really didn't know what that did for her. The second blink was for the question as it surprised him.

His first reaction was to say no and get as far away from the dojo and Kaoru as he could. He was feeling more and more certain that the only danger she would be in today would be from him. Still both of them out of the house, in public and... properly dressed might be safer. Kaoru in something that didn't allow him to hungrily eye every curve she possessed would certainly be of benefit to his fragmenting sanity.

"It's just that we've had two meals together that really didn't go that well and I thought that maybe the third time would be the charm," Kaoru said, speaking carefully and apparently worried as he hadn't answered right away.

Battousai bowed to her slightly. "I would be happy to join you for lunch; will an hour from now be enough time?"

"Um," Kaoru looked down at herself and appeared to run some kind of calculations in a math no man would ever understand.

"Perhaps an hour and a half," she said, not sounding all that convinced but willing to try.

"Very well I will meet you on the engawa in an hour and a half."

Kaoru gave him a little smile and finally left the room, something that Battousai shook the hair out of his eyes to watch. When she slid the door closed he felt his body slump, and he had to wonder just when he'd become such a pervert.

If one of them were going to act like that he'd always expected the Rurouni to be the more likely candidate. Not that either of them tended to be like that.

At least not until lately.

With a snort Battousai attempted to dismiss his current problem and instead focused on what to do for the next hour and a half. Given how sweaty he was maybe a bath would be in order.

A really cold one.

--------000--------

An hour and a half, was she nuts, there was no way she'd be ready in an hour and a half. Not if she was going to do this right.

Ah, her hair was a mess, the kimono she'd intended to wear had dirt on the hem, she couldn't find the padding she used under it to smooth out her shape and the obi was wrinkled.

Okay Kaoru, just stop for a moment and breath.

In and out, in and out, in and out.

Calm.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh." A maelstrom of clothing and accessories flew through the air compacting in a tighter and tighter whirlwind until an hour and a half later Kaoru emerged.

She tripped out the door of her room while still trying to get a hair pin in place, panicked that Kenshin would have given up waiting for her by now.

She caught herself at the door to the outside and took a few deep breaths before taking on the appearance of calm and sliding the door open. It took superhuman strength of will to not wilt and collapse when she found the engawa empty.

Kenshin was nowhere to be seen.

"Kaoru?"

It would have taken even more than superhuman strength of will not to jump as Battousai came up behind her but to her credit Kaoru did manage to keep it down to a slight jerk of her body and not the full jump with shriek that she wanted to do.

"Kenshin, don't do that to me," she said turning around to take in the amusement that glowed in his amber eyes. With a second, much smaller jerk she wondered when she'd stopped thinking of him as Battousai and just saw him as Kenshin.

If she thought about it she might be able to track her thoughts back to when she'd stopped separating them in her mind but she didn't bother. All she needed to know at this moment was that the light of humour in his eyes that she suspected even he didn't realize was there was all Kenshin.

"I'm not sure I can't do that Kaoru. In fact if I didn't I'm not sure I would be me."

Kaoru almost snorted at his statement but it would not have been very lady like and she was trying her best to impress. It was also, she had to admit, true. Kenshin sneaked. Although he did it in different ways depending on his... mood, whether he was feeling Rurouni like or Battousai like. To someone who didn't know him the Rurouni seemed like a very straight forward person, but he wasn't. In fact for all of Battousai's silent movement through the shadows he was by far the more direct of the two, although at times blunt might have been a better way of putting it.

So instead of snorting she just nodded slightly as if to say she understood. One of Kenshin's eyebrows rose at that and he nodded back ever so slightly before suggesting that they make their way to the Akabeko for lunch. She agreed and they both headed out to travel down the road and across the bridge towards the restaurant.

It was a pleasant day, one that would have been more pleasant if she could have gotten Kenshin to walk beside her instead of in front of her in a 'guard' position. She sighed quietly, there were some things she'd probably never be able to change and Kenshin being protective was one of them. Thankfully he'd never been stupid enough to be over protective, at least not as the Rurouni. That thought caused her to wonder just how Battousai would be protective wise, not that she intended to do anything to test her musing. The fact that he had been willing to spar with her, where the Rurouni wouldn't was a good sign, one in his favour even, although she still didn't know whether to blush or be annoyed at how that match had gone.

Both perhaps, especially if she kept aside the annoyance for Yahiko and Sano.

Speaking of which.

As they entered the Akabeko Kenshin artfully manoeuvred her around a pile of rice, miso, green tea and assorted vegetables before she could trip over any of it. Frowning she looked from the pile of goods that bore more than a passing resemblance to the items she'd had on her grocery list to see Yahiko and Sano sitting at the table behind the pile, faces frozen in horror, their eyes wide with their mouths stuck in mid chew.

From outside the restaurant everything seemed peaceful until a gale force wind tumbled two people out the door and into the street. They were followed by a huge amount of groceries that miraculously piled themselves up without damage and ready to be carted away.

The momentarily stunned people on the streets watched as a young woman came to the door and yelled. "And when you've finished with the rest of the chores you **will **come back here and work off the bill for your lunch." She turned and stomped back inside and everyone who had been frozen in place just gave a mental shrug and continued on with what they had originally been doing.

Yahiko got to his feet, dusting himself off as he did. "Let's go to the Akabeko he says, Kaoru will never know he says, let's charge it to a tab he says."

Sano gave Yahiko a tap to the back of his head. "Shut up I say, and help me with this stuff."

Groaning the two of them picked up the piled groceries and staggered off towards the dojo.

"Damn it, why does Jo-chan always have to buy so much at a time anyway?"


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Still don't own. Nope.

Author's note: I actually lost this story when I changed computers some time back. For some reason it didn't transfer with everything else, and the new computer didn't take floppies, so I couldn't access my backups. I **finally** took my disc to work, recovered this chapter and emailed it back to myself during a lunch hour (because the work computer refused to acknowledge the stick I brought to save it on).

A Meeting of Minds

By Colleen

Part 8

Tae hid her laugh behind her hands as Kaoru stomped back into the restaurant and asked for a table for two. Normally she would have commented good naturally about what had just happened, but Tae quickly noticed how elegantly dressed Kaoru was this afternoon. Despite the manhandling of Yahiko and Sano and her temporary state of fury it was obvious that she had put a lot more consideration into her appearance today than she did most other days.

She also noticed how much more intense Kenshin's attention to Kaoru was. Instead of lunch between a landlady and her lodger this appeared to be a date.

About time too.

With her best attempt at discretion she got the two of them into her most private seating area, which really wasn't all that private, but at least there wasn't anyone sitting near them at the moment. The two of them ordered quickly. As regulars they practically had the menu memorised. Tae left them a pot of tea and cups and took their order to the kitchen, planning to find a good spot to keep an eye on the two of them once that was done.

Unfortunately for Tae three tables worth of boisterous students came in just after and she was kept busy dealing with them. She did however make sure to seat them as far from Kenshin and Kaoru as she could.

Every glance she managed to spare the two possible lovebirds made her grit her teeth in annoyance and itch to jump in and help things along. Kaoru appeared to be spending the wait for their meal looking at her hands, sipping her tea and staring intently into her cup. In other words, she did everything she could to not look at Kenshin.

* * *

As she stared at her tea Kaoru was sure that her cheeks would burn away from embarrassment. Here she was trying to be elegant and instead she'd been acting more like a tropical storm. As awkward as she felt at the moment, if she'd had even an inkling that Kenshin found her recent whirlwind of activity very attractive her entire face would have gone up in a bonfire of blushing mortification.

Battousai was also looking into his cup intensely. Why, he wondered, did I say yes? It wasn't that he didn't want to be here with Kaoru, in fact he very much wanted to be with her. The problem was that, one, he wouldn't allow himself to be with her the way he really wanted and two, sitting in a restaurant with her trying to figure out some way to start a conversation wasn't anywhere close to the way he wanted to be with her. Although he had to admit that it would be part of it. The little things were important and there wasn't anything he could think of that he wouldn't be willing to do with, or for, Kaoru.

And yes, that included the one thing that the Rurouni had sworn never to do again.

"Kenshin?"

He looked up and nodded at her, relieved that she was going to start the conversation.

"Could we talk about what happened in your room?"

Okay, maybe relieved was the wrong word.

Mentally Battousai opened and closed his mouth a couple of times while trying to think of something to say to that question.

"I mean, was there something there, or was I just imagining it?"

Yes, tell her that she was imagining it and everything would be able to go back to normal just as soon as the Rurouni took back control.

"Yes, there was something there."

What! Who the hell said that?

He looked at Kaoru. Her face held pure joy and she was blinking rapidly, trying to fight back the tears that were gathering at the edges of her eyes.

Oh crap, he'd said that.

"Kaoru, something was there, but nothing can happen."

"W.. w.. what?"

Battousai came close to wincing as a look of total desolation came over Kaoru, killing her moment of happiness.

He spoke quickly. "What I mean is… I would not… could not… compromise you in such a way. You deserve..." To not be held by a man with more blood on his hands than he holds in his own body, damn, he was starting to channel the Rurouni. "You deserve the love of a man who is your husband. To do anything that could destroy that... I cannot."

Kaoru looked at him, her eyes little more than slits that glittered dangerously. It was a look that made him fear for his own personal health, regardless of his abilities with a sword.

"So I should wait until I am married?"

He nodded and held his breath, waiting for the explosion.

Kaoru appeared to be giving what he'd just said some serious thought. Her eyes returned to their normal size and she gave a little nod to herself.

"Very well." She smiled at him, the calm expression on her face making him far more worried for his safety than her previous look had. A harried Tae arrived with their meal and Kaoru changed subjects, discussing small things, like repairs to the dojo, if she'd forgotten anything on the grocery list and if some of the garden was ready for harvesting. Everyday things that should have been far more comfortable to discuss, but somehow weren't.

If any part of Kenshin had known what Kaoru was thinking right then, all of him would have been panicking just about...now.

* * *

Kaoru was quiet on the walk home as she considered her options. She knew that Kenshin was right. Right about waiting anyway. She also knew quite well that he wasn't offering to marry her, no matter how she might wish he had been. She had been very tempted to misunderstand him and attempt to force his hand. It wouldn't have worked with Rurouni; he was too good at deflecting such suggestions with a pratfall and a pitiful 'oro.' However, while Battousai might be painfully blunt in how he dealt with people, he was obviously trying to not hurt her. Mix that together and he might not have managed to back peddle away from any advances she could have made.

Kaoru stifled the impulse to sigh. She hadn't been able to do it. It just hadn't felt right. So that left her only one other option, one that she was even less sure about than misunderstanding him

She could seduce him.

Or at least try to. She could attempt to drive him crazy by showing him what he wanted, but wouldn't allow himself to take. At least not if what had happened twice earlier today was anything to go by.

It was a time honoured tactic, but one that she had doubts about being able to pull off. Anytime she'd attempted something similar she'd felt like a little girl dressed up in her mother's clothes and pretending to be grown up.

Briefly she considered talking to Megumi about it. If there was anyone who understood how to use female wiles it was the fox. However she felt uncomfortable asking advice of someone who was also interested in Kenshin, even if she had apparently yielded the field to her.

'Come on Kaoru,' she thought, 'try something, keep his attention at the very least and figure out the rest later.'

A sexy walk maybe?

Subtly she started to shift her stride, making her steps a little smaller and giving her hips a bit more movement.

"Kaoru, have you hurt your ankle? You're walking rather oddly."

"Sigh." She wilted slightly and smoothed out her walk, returning to her normal athletic tread.

"No Kenshin, there was just a pebble caught in my shoe, its fine now.

How do other women do this anyway?

Maybe she should try a higher pitch to her voice, to make it more sexy?

Pwwww. Kenshin would probably ask her if she was coming down with a cold or something.

Well at least she knew enough to not try and laugh like Megumi. That would never go over well.

* * *

Battousai spent the rest of the day keeping discretely out of Kaoru's way. Thankfully she'd been distracted for most of the evening with storing the groceries and making sure that Sano and Yahiko had a miserable time of just about everything.

He almost wished he could have helped with that.

Night had seemed to take forever to come and despite his control sleep had been difficult to achieve. When he did finally managed to drift off and had once again entered the dream (nightmare) he'd ended up having to forgo the revenge he'd planned, mostly because he'd found Rurouni passed out from blood loss by the side of the river. From the looks of it he'd been like that ever since he'd tackled Kaoru back in his room.

Who knew that nose bleeds could be so dangerous.

He mentally kicked Rurouni forward in their mind, so that when their body woke up he'd be in control. With another twist of his thoughts he reset the dream from the river bank that Rurouni liked to fish from, to the inn he used to live in during the Bakumatsu. With a satisfied sigh he settled down in his old room and picked out one of his books to read while waiting for the morning to come.

Watching Rurouni try to figure out what had happened while he'd been passed out should be worth the wait and would work a small ways towards the revenge he deserved.

* * *

Kenshin was very close to panicking. Battousai hadn't left him any clues to what had happened yesterday and Kaoru...

Kaoru was happy.

It had actually been something of a shock. He'd woken up and wouldn't have realized it was morning if Kaoru hadn't given him a cheery "Ohayou" as he made his way to the relief area. When he'd finished there he'd headed to the kitchen to start breakfast and found the place fully stocked.

What had he missed yesterday? What had happened with Kaoru in his bed room and why was there the sound of someone snickering in the back of his head?

"Hey Kenshin, do you need any help with breakfast?"

Kenshin turned to see Kaoru standing in the entry to the kitchen and fought to keep a worried frown from his face. She was still happy. And not a kind of happy that he'd been expecting. He would have thought that her good cheer this morning would have been for the fact that Rurouni was back, but that wasn't it. In fact she didn't even seem to notice any difference in him this morning.

"Uh, no thank you Kaoru dono, I can manage."

"Okay. Say Kenshin?"

"Hummm?"

"Since I got Sano and Yahiko to take care of most of the chores yesterday, I was wondering if we could go picnicking this afternoon."

"Uhhh." NO, was his immediate thought. There was no way he was going to spend a romantic afternoon picnic with Kaoru, it was just asking for trouble.

"Uhhh, what about Yahiko?"

Kaoru frowned at him, appearing slightly perplexed. "Well, he can come too, of course."

Whew.

"Ahh, well then, I would love to go picnicking this afternoon."

"Great, I'll go tell Yahiko and get him started on his practice so we can have the afternoon free. Just give us a shout when breakfast is ready, okay?" She practically yelled the last sentence over her left shoulder as she headed out to the dojo.

"Okay."

Alright, so maybe he had been reading a little too much into Kaoru's good mood. After all, just because he'd passed out around the time Battousai had been laying on top of a barely dressed Kaoru didn't mean anything had happened...

Damn it, there was that laugh again.


End file.
